Electromagnetic Field Simulations of Isolated and Periodic 3D Photomask Patterns

TL;DR

This paper introduces a finite-element method for accurate 3D electromagnetic simulations of isolated photomask features, achieving high precision with lower computational costs than traditional periodic domain methods.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel finite-element solver with advanced features for efficient and accurate electromagnetic simulations of isolated photomask patterns.

Findings

Accurate light scattering results for isolated features.

Reduced computational costs compared to periodic domain simulations.

Effective use of higher-order edge elements and adaptive refinement.

Abstract

We present rigorous 3D EMF simulations of isolated features on photomasks using a newly developed finite-element method. We report on the current status of the finite-element solver JCMsuite, incorporating higher-order edge elements, adaptive refinement methods, and fast solution algorithms. We demonstrate that rigorous and accurate results on light scattering off isolated features can be achived at relatively low computational cost, compared to the standard approach of simulations on large-pitch, periodic computational domains.